Predicament: Doom 3 on 21" monitor

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miazmaticdotcom

Gawd
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May 3, 2003
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I just got a Viewsonic 21" monitor from a friend. Then I ran the Doom 3 on my GeForce4 MX440 (64MB PCI). Needless to say, I'm now in the market for a new graphics card.

Now, back when I had my 15" monitor, 1024x768 or even 800x600 would have been fine, so I was planning to get a GeForce 5700U (256MB AGP). However, this new arrival has caused me to want 1600x1200.

Of course, you need a pretty expensive video card to run Doom3 at 16x12, and I only have $150 to spend.

Advice? Save up some more for a 5950U?
 
miazmaticdotcom said:
I just got a Viewsonic 21" monitor from a friend. Then I ran the Doom 3 on my GeForce4 MX440 (64MB PCI). Needless to say, I'm now in the market for a new graphics card.

Now, back when I had my 15" monitor, 1024x768 or even 800x600 would have been fine, so I was planning to get a GeForce 5700U (256MB AGP). However, this new arrival has caused me to want 1600x1200.

Of course, you need a pretty expensive video card to run Doom3 at 16x12, and I only have $150 to spend.

Advice? Save up some more for a 5950U?
Click to expand...

I think ud be better off with a 9800pro, I'm sure that runs doom better than the 5950....could be wrong tho. With either ud be struggling to hit 16x12 with any amount of decent settings tho.
 
I have a 21" Sony Trinitron and I personally like play everything on 1152x864,

b/c the refresh rate is still 100Hz, at 1600x1200 its only 85Hz.

60Hz hurts my eyes immediately,
85Hz tends to bother me after a while
100Hz is fine

Nvidia cards play Doom3 very well. If you only have $150, I guess I'd buy a 5900XT you should be able to find a used one for that price easily. (new $172 @ newegg)

9800 Pro's are also great all around cards and are selling used for near that price (new $195 @ newegg)

Though I would hold for a 6800 vanilla... run about $270 new.
 
without a 6600 or a 6800 your going to have a hard time getting doom3 to run at 16x12
as for a 9800pro...that can barely do 1024x768...i would get a 5900XTOC from BFG. my friend is running doom3 at 1280x1024 with high settings and having a avg FPS of 50+
his system is a XP2500M on a abit NF7-S v2.0 oced to 2600mhz. with 1 gig of corsair ram...i had a BFG5900XTOC...and that card kicked some ass in doom3...see my sig..but there about 150 to 200 dollars...maybe less now...so try that
 
Tigerblade said:
I think ud be better off with a 9800pro, I'm sure that runs doom better than the 5950....could be wrong tho. With either ud be struggling to hit 16x12 with any amount of decent settings tho.
Click to expand...

Actually the 5950 runs doom 3 a little bit better than the 9800 pro. Neither of the cards will run doom 3 at 1600x1200 (well maybe at low quality settings). If you want to run doom 3 at those kind of setting you'd be better off saving up for a 6800nu or even a gt.
 
Well, i have a 9800np that I had played doom3 on my 21" montior at 1024x768 and high quality and it ran just fine.

BTW, I have that card for sale too, with the ATI HDTV dongle and component cables....PM me
 
I would say you want a 6800 minimum if you want fairly high resolutions. Most of the posts I see of Radeon 9800 owners say they run at 800x600 High or 1024x768 med. I would not buy an FX card at this point in time. If you can wait I think the 6600GT is going to be realeased in an AGP version which would still run Doom3 well according to the benchies I have seen.
 
i have a 21in view sonic monitor
and a geforce 6800 gt

i run 1600x1200 with everything turned up just fine:) Doom III looks amazing too
 
miazmaticdotcom said:
5900XT it is then.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-164-018&depa=0

There aren't any 5900XTs on 'egg with 256MB memory. I've heard that Doom 3 will sometimes fill up 128MB. Any thoughts on that?
Click to expand...

Your video card memory determines the detail level you can run at without taxing your system's ability to cope with it.

Ultra= 512 MB
High= 256 MB
Medium = 128 MB
Low= 64 MB

Unless the rest of your system is very fast and you have alot of fast RAM, you don't want to run Doom 3 at a higher detail level than your card has memory for, because you will see stuttering and other slowdowns.
 
I run Doom 3 on a 21 inch NEC Multisync FP1370 CRT monitor at 1600x1200 and my monitor does 100Hz, with my 6800GT OC'ed to Ultra speeds I am a very happy gamer.

There are 21's that will do more than 85Hz at 1600x1200. But to answer your question I'd save for a 5950 at the very least. But for what you can get one of those for, you might just want to spend a little more on a 6800NU.
 
CastleBravo said:
Your video card memory determines the detail level you can run at without taxing your system's ability to cope with it.

Ultra= 512 MB
High= 256 MB
Medium = 128 MB
Low= 64 MB

Unless the rest of your system is very fast and you have alot of fast RAM, you don't want to run Doom 3 at a higher detail level than your card has memory for, because you will see stuttering and other slowdowns.
Click to expand...

Ok, so in that case it's better to go with a 5700 that has 256mb? The 5900 with 256 is way out of my price range, so the Albatron 5700Q is the current contender.
 
My advice is to take the monitor to a pawn shop, get what you can for it and then take that extra money you would of spent on a shitty graphics card and go pick up a good lookin whore at a club.
 
get a 6600GT when they come out in AGP versions

They have a MSRP that is half of what the 6800GT MSRP is

and it should be able to run Doom 3 in 1600x1200 adequately
 
Shane said:
My advice is to take the monitor to a pawn shop, get what you can for it and then take that extra money you would of spent on a shitty graphics card and go pick up a good lookin whore at a club.
Click to expand...

Easy for you to say, but I'm in high school, therefore cannot work, therefore only have money that my parents will give me.

I think [H]ers are just too rich to give advice to lower forms of life that are upgrading their ancient cards to slightly less ancient cards.

Oh well...
 
miazmaticdotcom said:
I think [H]ers are just too rich to give advice to lower forms of life that are upgrading their ancient cards to slightly less ancient cards.

Oh well...
Click to expand...

I gave you good advice. Look up 6600GT reviews and see how much better it will work than a 5900 whatever. It will cost less than $30 more than that card you were considering
 
Shane said:
My advice is to take the monitor to a pawn shop, get what you can for it and then take that extra money you would of spent on a shitty graphics card and go pick up a good lookin whore at a club.
Click to expand...
rotflmao

sorry.

A bud of mine has a 5700 Ultra 256, he can play at HQ 1024x768 all day long. Just an FYI more than anything...

I'm looking for cheap, so I'll probably grab a 5700 vanilla, but the 5900s would perform better.
 
I have a 9800 pro, run the game at 1024 x 768 on high, it looks really good. It does perform better now that I am running a 3200 newcastle. I have yet to see a better card though, only read about them.
 
Either a 9800Pro or save some for a 6800vanilla is what I suggest.
 
You are using a 5 wire RGB cable, right?

On my 21" I play most games at 1024x768 off my 9800Pro128/256. So long as I can turn up all the goodies I am happy. It can do 200Hz but I usually keep it at 85. For a long while I was using 1280x1024 but that was mostly for doing surfing; and only because FireFox allows me to resize page text. When I read a lot of text I really crank up the font size.

Why 1024x768? For those few times where there is slowdown in a smooth running game. 10 fps at 1600x1200 is no fun.
 
Eh, sorry about the rich people comment. I was just annoyed at the number of college/working type people who had really nice cards. I don't want to go ATi cause I hear their drivers suck, I've always had good experiences with nVidia drivers.

I've just found a 128mb 5700 with GDDR3 memory. So the question arises: 128mb GDDR3 or 256mb plain old DDR?
 
I'd be worried about the clock speeds first, then the memory size.

power over quantity, high quantity over low quantity.
 
I think I'm going to stick with my original. GeForce 5700 with 256mb. The 5900 only has 128 in my price range, and I'd rather run at High than Medium at say, 1024.x768

I've noticed the 5 RGB inputs on the back of my monitor, but am not sure how to put them to good use. Care to elaborate?
 
CastleBravo said:
Your video card memory determines the detail level you can run at without taxing your system's ability to cope with it.

Ultra= 512 MB
High= 256 MB
Medium = 128 MB
Low= 64 MB

Unless the rest of your system is very fast and you have alot of fast RAM, you don't want to run Doom 3 at a higher detail level than your card has memory for, because you will see stuttering and other slowdowns.
Click to expand...

Sorry but my x800XT PE is 256mb and I run the game at Ultra settings with no stuttering or lag. And thats with 4xaa and 16xaf at 1280 x 1024.
 
miazmaticdotcom said:
I don't want to go ATi cause I hear their drivers suck, I've always had good experiences with nVidia drivers.
Click to expand...

Thats BS mate. Don't listen to the nvidia bleating....the catalysts are brilliant now, far better than what they used to be. And some would argue better than Dets.
 
What is the problem with the vanilla 6800?

The 6800 architecture has vastly superior performance in Doom3, and the 6800 isn't *that* much more expensive than a 5900xt. Check out some benchmarks.
 
wallijonn said:
You are using a 5 wire RGB cable, right?

On my 21" I play most games at 1024x768 off my 9800Pro128/256. So long as I can turn up all the goodies I am happy. It can do 200Hz but I usually keep it at 85. For a long while I was using 1280x1024 but that was mostly for doing surfing; and only because FireFox allows me to resize page text. When I read a lot of text I really crank up the font size.

Why 1024x768? For those few times where there is slowdown in a smooth running game. 10 fps at 1600x1200 is no fun.
Click to expand...

I'm using the a 5 wire RGB cable yes. I get more than 10 FPS at 1600x1200 by a long shot. >;)
 
i run doom3 at 1280x1024 on high with 128 mb vid memory.. but i have a gb of memory
get the 6800nu if your on a budget
 
miazmaticdotcom said:
I think I'm going to stick with my original. GeForce 5700 with 256mb. The 5900 only has 128 in my price range, and I'd rather run at High than Medium at say, 1024.x768

I've noticed the 5 RGB inputs on the back of my monitor, but am not sure how to put them to good use. Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...

Your logic doesnt work. 256MB isnt always greater than 128MB

Ex:
6800 vanilla only has 128Mb and it would blow away the 5700 with 256Mb
Also the 5900XT 128Mb would be quite a bit faster than the 5700 with 256Mb

Its a marketing ploy to sell you the card with bigger numbers.

the 5700's arent really powerful enough to use more than 128Mb in a graphically intensive game. In fact the 5900's arent really either.

My proof for this is.... 90% of the time there is only a 1-3fps difference between the 2 cards (ex: 5700 128mb vs 5700 256mb) The only time you'll see a bigger margin is maybe at 1600x1200 with 4xAA... and by that point it might be 16fps vs 24fps.... yeah a 50% difference, but both are slideshows.

So dont bother getting a 256Mb 5700, get the 5900XT before that, or a 9800 Pro.

Trust me, the 5700 (and 9600's) suck compared to the 5900 and 9800's and now they arent priced that much different.
 
Yeah I'd agree. I see alot of people buy 9600XT 256MB cards over 9800Pro 128's. It's got more memory. I have a hard time explaining to people that memory doesn't make the card in terms of speed. In fact faster memory is better than more memory to a point.
 
lol gddr3 mean doesnt mean much really
5700 is numbered correctly
better then a 5600 but worse then a 5800 and the 5900 is better then the 5800

get a 5900... 5900 doom 3 preformance at high at 1280x1024 is nothing to phone home about
(20-30 fps min after downsize tweaks) but for msot part it runs at ~30-40 fps

now imagine what a 5700 would do... no gddr3 doesnt make it too much better

gddr3 was put there just for marketing
 
On Doom3 I find the best settings to be medium quality, 1204x768 and 2x anti. I have it on high quality with 800x600 resolution now. I honestly did expect to be able to play high quality smoothly, but thats just not the case
Click to expand...
thats a review from a newegg shopper on the 5700 you chose
 
you best bet is a 6800 nu.. at the resolution you want.. even a 5900 will have trouble even after overclocking the hell outa it
 
miazmaticdotcom said:
Ok, so I'm now looking at this one:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewprodu...tion=14-122-192&ATT=Video+Cards&CMP=OTC-C173T

I like it because it has 900MHz GDDR3. It's a bit over my budged but I'm prepared to spend the extra cash.

I still have no idea what a 5-wire RGB cable is, but there are 5 coax-looking ports on the ass end of my monitor.
Click to expand...

The five wire RGB connections are the coax thingies. Anyway you can get a RGB to SVGA cable and that will definatley give you the best colors on your monitor. Since it all comes from the same SVGA connector off the video card I wouldn't imagine the inputs would make that much of a difference. But splitting the signal to the monitor just makes the colors alot more vivid. Alot cleaner. It's badass.
 
Definitely gonna look into that uber-splice cable.

Ok, so I'm just going to save up for a 128mb 5900 and run it at High Quality, 1024x768. I will look at the 6800 series but they are honestly way out of my price range.
 
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